Alright, so I am a first time jeep guy. I used to be all about the tuner scene and into foreign cars only, but I finally made the switch over to the dark side. The last car I am coming off of before the jeep is a 1999 Honda CRV jeep “wanna be”. I liked the fact that it was a SUV that was cheap and easy to fix along with getting OK gas mileage. After about a year of owning that I realized it just wasn’t fitting my needs. I needed something that could haul a smaller trailer comfortably and something I could possibly drive on the dunes (silver lake sand dunes in MI). Here was the CRV:

Here is what happened to it shortly before I sold it. Semi kicked up an arm size piece of aluminum through the windshield…steering wheel saved my life as you can see, it only clipped my shoulder after hitting the wheel. The car was all fixed and I sold it.

This is what I picked up….2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee Freedom Edition 4.7 HO Quadra-drive 2
The jeep had 94k when I bought it and 100% stock, here are the pics from the day I took it home:

After arriving home from picking it up I found it had a leaking brake line (hard line running to rear axle) so that was the first thing fixed. After that I replaced the front pads and rotors, along with all of the tie rods (all were shot).

After this I threw my rack on I had left from the CRV.

Next on the list was a good detail. I used to be a car detailer for a few years so I am pretty anal about car cleanliness (weird to most hard core jeep people I am sure)

Along with the detail I also:
Debadged the entire thing
Removed the running boards
Painted the front grill black
Tint matched the front 2 windows

A little later I replaced the plugs with champion OEM replacements, got some ebay rain guards that actually fit very well, and had a knock off flowmaster muffler installed by a local shop. The muffler sounds exactly how I wanted it to. Deep start up and idle, a little loud take off, and quite while cruising both in town and highway. I’m not sure of the actual brand of the muffler.

Next things in the very near future are:
6000k HID headlights and fog lights from DDM tuning (yes I know the proper way is with projectors)
LED license plate lights
ALL LED interior lights
Trans/ Diffs fluid

Future plans down the line are:
IRO 3” lift
32” tires…have yet to decide what type of wheels or tires. My original plan was take off moabs with mud terrains and spacers, but so many people run those that I would like a different aftermarket wheel. I just haven’t found anything I like yet

I don’t plan on doing any real wheeling. It will be many a street jeeps for looks. Ill take it on the dunes when I go a few times a years and maybe a tiny bit of off roading if I get the chance, but nothing major.

Nice upgrade, you will love the WJ. Since we are all dumping pics on your thread...If you like those wheels, here is another shot of what they look like on a WJ:

Your jeeps sick! I've seen it many other times browsing through the picture threads. Mine will never be anything crazy like that. I wouldn't even think to try to drive thru/ over half of the stuff that I have seen this thing on in pictures...... College is killing my jeep budget though. If it was the summer and I was still working full time I'd have the lift/ wheels/ tires done tomorrow!

Small update: started getting in some of my LED'S I'll post before and after pictures.

For the exterior I got the license plate lights and front marker/turn signal lights

I got all of the interior lights (excluding the gauge/ climate control ect lights)

This is the only pic I have so far. I am waiting to do the fronts markers until my HID's come in to do all the front lights at once, and I still need to pick up resistors for them.

I have all of the front interior lights done (dome, under dash, glove box) I am waiting on the other style of bulb to come in for the rear handles and trunk dome light.

I was originally going to keep my stock tail lights, but after seeing these I might pick a set up (also LED from what I have found)...I'm not sure whos rig this is, but this pic made me want aftermarket tails.

So I got the rest of my LED's last night and got them all in, but found 2 problems.....1) I have the infamous LED "glow" from the rear three cargo lights (rear handles/trunk) while driving which so far isn't a big deal to me. They don't glow enough to actually project any light into the car, the housing just slightly glows. Problem 2) The 3 rear LED's I just mentioned are a slight blue compared to the pure white ones I installed up front, so I will be trying to order another set of bulbs for the rear in hopes of them matching the front white lights better.

Still waiting on my HID's from DDM. I didn't realize they came from China....

Well, I installed all of me LED interior lights. (picture below). I do have the "glow" from the rear 3 cargo lights, but it is not as bad as I thought it would be. Also, those 3 rear lights have just a slight blue tint compared to the bright white I have up front, still look good in my opinion.

On another update, I have decided to do a 2" BB on 31's to get me by until summer. While in school, working part times doesn't give me much room to work with so I have decided to do this for the time being to make the rig look a little better. I have already ordered my spacers off of ebay for $85 shipped. I will install those when they come in and upgrade the shocks in a few weeks. I was also able to find a set of 15x8 wheels with 31x10.5x15 tires for $100 that I picked up today. I will be replacing 2 of the tires before they get put on, but that will be in the very near future.

I am still waiting on my HID's to come in, along with my D-ring hitch I ordered.